SCCCCOR, the Barrios Unidos Juvenile Hall Outreach Program, Watsonville Vice Mayor Karina Cervantez and ACLU Santa Cruz are joining together to host events addressing the issue of “Direct File”, which allows juveniles to be tried in adult court and sentenced to adult prison.

Each event will feature the screening of the documentary film “Juvies” which is a video created by several young people while they were incarcerated in the Los Angeles County Juvenile Hall and who are all being tried as adults. A Santa Cruz Family Support Group Meeting will follow each screening. These meetings will give our audience an opportunity to examine how Direct File laws affect families. We will also discuss “gang enhanced” sentencing, the criteria used by the courts to label a young person as a “gang member”, how this feeds into the school-to-prison pipeline and questioning whether we are we actually criminalizing culture.

The first showing and group meeting will be held on Sunday, July 14th from 5 to 7pm at the Resource Center for Nonviolence located at 612 Ocean Street in Santa Cruz. The second showing will be on Wednesday, July 17thfrom 6:30-8:30 pm at the Teacher's Union Office located at 734 East Lake Avenue Suite 14 (upstairs) in Watsonville.

Dinner will be served at both events and Spanish translation and childcare will be provided. So please join us for an evening of shared information, discussion and community support.